‘Star Trek 4’ Is Reportedly Dead

Buried in Deadline’s report about S.J. Clarkson being brought in to direct the pilot for the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel series is a note that will dishearten Trekkies everywhere: The fourth film in theStar Trek reboot has been quietly nixed:

I hear Clarkson was recruited by HBO for GOT after she recently became available. Earlier this year, Clarkson was the first female director to be tapped to direct a Star Trek movie when she was hired to helm the fourth feature in the current series. That project has since been shelved.

That excerpt highlights the talking point of every article (including the one on ScreenCrush) about Clarkson being brought on to make Star Trek 4; she would have been the first female director in the history of the cinematic franchise. Now? Not so much.

With or without Clarkson, I really wanted at least one more Star Trek with Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock before they went boldly into the annals of future history. The 2009 Star Trek is a blast — maybe the best reboot of all time? — and while Star Trek Into Darkness was largely a misfire, Star Trek Beyond might be the most underrated Trek movie ever, and it really felt like the cast was just starting to hit their stride when things got yanked away from them.

Realistically, the series was probably doomed when Star Trek: Discovery started. That series is set in roughly the same time period as the Star Trek movies, but the two don’t really overlap — and now Discovery is adding Spock to the series, where he’ll be played by someone other than Quinto. And it’s a rule in Hollywood: You can’t have more than one Spock running around at the same time. Alas.